There is a timorous hope that 2021 will give the past year’s debts back to players and Dota 2 fans. The thing is that the main event of the season 2020 – The International 10 had to be postponed. It was a shock but then, the player community evaluated all risks and was good with it.
After this news, professional life was paused in Dota 2. The top clubs had the small motivation to participate in small online events. But Dota 2 fans meet 2021 with hope in their hearts – Valve has announced a new format for the season.
What has Valve prepared?
News that Valve was preparing some kind of the anti-COVID plan emerged in August 2020. The company revealed the first plans in September and the official confirmation of the DPC format for the season 2021 happened on January 1, 2021.
Let’s be clear – Valve has no thoughts to return to LAN tournaments. It has been announced that 6 regional leagues will be hosted online in the DPC 2021 Season 1 series on January 18. It is still difficult to predict if this innovation changes the balance of power in the esports discipline.
The structure
The competition itself will consist of two full seasons, which will end with The International 10. Preliminary, its start is traditionally scheduled in August 2021. The local is all the same – Stockholm.
The road to Stockholm will pass through two Majors for clubs. The first of them will be hosted from March 25 to April 4 after six weeks of the first regular season. Each region will have two divisions, each of which will include eight teams. There will be a rotation between the divisions. Two teams will be replaced depending on the final results.
According to the schedule, the teams will have 2-3 matches every gaming week. It causes big problems to organizers of local events, they will have to be flexible and fit the DPC format. In such a way, Dota 2 will slowly become similar to the CS:GO format with its global system and a row of regional Minors.
Predictions
Dota 2 has stable online numbers and no big problems are expected to appear in the future. If the company tries hard and releases another Battle Pass before the Stockholm The International 10, the prize pool might become giant. The sum of 100 million dollars would not be a surprise.
The cancellation of The International 10 created a lot of questions last year. The whole infrastructure faced a negative effect due to the cancellation of the event. Because almost all the content created was focused on Battle Pass.
There will be very interesting roster changes in teams. Now, it is time for transfers and big clubs are considering new combinations of players. The market is overflown with extra-motivated stars who have been without a big game for almost half a year.
We are unlikely to see new teams in the first European division, despite Valve prefers a pretty liberal qualification through direct decider matches. The American league will be very difficult to predict where stability is traditionally not a feature.
The esports scene will definitely change and all fans still hope that the reform scheduled by Valve will only bring a positive effect.
